Flapping Parrot - Page 7 finished!

So I guess yesterday's post isn't my last post of 2017, but this will be. I just finished the 7th page of the Flapping Parrot!

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I love it and I think it looks great so far (if I do say so myself)!

Time to put this one away. In the new year I will be knitting my friend's baby blanket and working on Medieval Shelf! H³ just made the selection and I'm excited to be stitching on that one - the colors are wonderful and who doesn't love two little dragons sword fighting with a medieval-themed bookshelf behind them?

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching, everyone!

Flapping Parrot 16

Christmas break provided me a lot of unprecedented stitching time! I turned my computer off Friday night and didn't turn it back on or check my work e-mail until Wednesday morning. Things had been pretty quiet - I only had 200 e-mails! The result is 10 more hours of stitching!

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These pages of the flapping parrot are pretty easy and go pretty quick - it's just background. But! There will be a page finish soon and then H³ will have to pick another pattern. However, my best friend (of over 20 years) just had her first baby so I have a baby blanket to finish. It's kind of mind blowing to me. I'm at that age where all my friends are making tiny humans of their own. Mind blowing.

Another thing I didn't mention (shame on me) is the lovely gift from The Craft Princess! Cliffhanger by Aimee Stewart found its way into my inbox:

This is the Supersize Master Color version. Can't wait! Thank you, Crafty Princess!

Well, that's it from me for 2017. I hope 2018 is a far better year for everyone, including myself. Stay safe this New Year's Eve, keep your pets safe especially if they're easily spooked, and enjoy yourselves responsibly. Wishing you all the best in the New Year, and, of course, plenty of stitching!

Flapping Parrot 15

Stitched my first 10 hours of page 7 of the Flapping Parrot!

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It feels good to stitch again, although I'm still working a lot. Christmas is the busiest time of year for us at work. Either way, I still try to get some stitching in on the weekends and I took the day after Christmas off so I have an extra day to be lazy.

I also signed up for the Cloudsfactory 2018 Legendary Creatures Alphabet SAL! It's a Christmas gift from my mom. First part is released January 10 and then the first of the month thereafter. Very excited! Hopefully I can keep up with the SAL. They had a sneak peek with Medusa and I love it so we'll see!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas (for those who celebrate it) and a peaceful New Year - hoping it's better than 2017.

Happy Stitching!

Greek Mandala #18 (Parts 1-4 done)

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I finished part 4 of the Greek Mandala! H³ has chosen the flapping parrot as the next stitch. Not sure if I mentioned this but together we have worked my WIP list down to 6 active stitches. Whenever I finish one, I'll rotate another one I've started, and so on. We'll see how this whole thing works out but probably better in terms of seeing measurable progress but on fewer projects. So stay tuned for the flapping parrot.

If you're wondering if I worked over the Thanksgiving holidays the answer is, of course, yes. I was told not to log on by the partners. Then we realized (at 9:30 on Wednesday night) that there was a filing that was due Wednesday that I didn't make on time (that's the official story, whatever). So I have to make it on Friday. I log on Friday and immediately get "I need this today!" e-mails (not filing related). I respond with "It's a holiday, I'll do it Monday." To which I get the classic, "okay, tell me who's working today and I'll ask them because I don't know how to _____." When I was done with all the things I passive aggressively shut down my computer before more e-mails could come in. I've been playing video games and stitching since. NO REGRETS. Until I come in on Monday.

Funny story, though, as I was taking the progress photos I had closed to door so the dog wouldn't come in and step on the stitching. She noses the door open anyway and waltzes in. I protected the stitching and made her sit/stay until I was done. This is the result:

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us over here, even our furry little monster (it's her favorite day of the year, after all), and happy stitching!

Greek Mandala #17

So, first of all, NOT DEAD! Still blogging! Things have just taken an unexpected turn. Work has been busy, as always, but I also "noped" out on vacation out of the country for 2.5 weeks. Since I have the kind of job that requires people to cover for me, I felt compelled to line things up as well as I could so I wouldn't be dumping on people, which meant long hours finishing things up. I went dark for the 2.5 weeks I was in Poland, vacationing and having a great time (check out my Instagram for photos), and when I came back it was to a total $h!7storm at work. I've been working every night and weekend since.

On top of that pretty much everyone I know is pregnant so I've been ass-deep in baby blanket knitting.

But, there will always be work, and I just can't look at another knit-stitch right now, and this weekend I'm TIRED. So I stitched. For the first time in a long time. And guess what! I finished the third corner of Greek Mandala.

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Slowly but surely the Mandala grows! One more corner and it will be time to rotate to the next stitching piece.

Life in general has been interesting. I turned 31 in August. I'm becoming a bit disenchanted with work. Not sure how to really handle that. H³ and I are starting to look into buying a house but the market in the Bay Area is insane, to say the least. Vacation was magnificent, but I'm all stressed out again.

I do have a new project going, which has taken up a lot of my time recently. I've been writing fiction since I was about 9 years old. I'm not good. I just enjoy it. Then I met some other people who enjoy it. Then we created a blog where we decided to serialize our writing and publish it. I write under a pen name, but you can find our work here. I hope you enjoy it. And if you don't then... I don't know. Don't keep reading, I guess.

With that, I'm going to go do some stuff. Stitching. Or knitting. Or writing. Definitely not working.

Happy stitching, everyone!

Greek Mandala #16

This part took me a little longer than the previous, but I think it's looking fantastic! And since I had to take it off the scrolls to get to the next corner, here's a photo!

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On the work front, however, I had to quit my promotion. Things hit the fan about two weeks ago and I decided that it wasn't worth it. Three months of the hardest work I've ever done and pulling the craziest hours I've ever pulled. Two 200+ billed months in a row and I was on track for July being the same. Then some things happened and H³ asked me to quit. So I did. And now I'm back to doing what I did before, and what I do best. And I'm so much happier for it.

We have also booked a vacation to Poland - 2.5 weeks of no work and fun travel. Can't wait.

On that note, I'm going to go play some video games (Witcher III!). Happy stitching, everyone!

Greek Mandala #15

Another blog post less than a week after my last one? It's true! I had a four day weekend last weekend and even though I have to work this weekend, I took today off. It has been a while since Greek Mandala has come out and the part I'm working on is to be repeated on all four corners of the center, but I finished the first one just about 30 minutes ago. So here it is!

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There are some really fantastic silks used in this part, which made it so interesting and fun to stitch.

In terms of work, things are not exactly getting better. I've cut back on my hours and although it's helping my health, I'm completely backlogged. As I said above, I took today off, but will have to get some stuff done tomorrow. In addition, I have another half marathon towards the end of July and haven't been able to train nearly enough. I'm concerned, but will deal.

And with that, I go back to Greek Mandala and the next corner motif. Happy stitching!

Snow Bears Stocking

I've been stitching lately, but primarily on the weekends and knitting on week nights if I'm not working. Still working a lot, but I started having stress and anxiety-related health problems and the moment that happened I cut back on my hours. Sometimes, things just have to get left undone.

I've been stitching on something new for a few weeks. H³ has always been troubled by the fact that I don't have a Christmas stocking. It was just never a thing in my family to have them. So he is insisting I have one. Of course, it has to be stitched so of course, I have to stitch it.

I picked the Dimensions "Snow Bears Stocking" and as of today have finished the top half of it:

A little tired of stitching white so I'm switching to Greek Mandala for a bit, but the stocking as a pretty quick stitch at least so there's some small hope I can finish it by Christmas!

Happy stitching and for those of you in the U.S., Happy Fourth!

Icelandic Chicken - Finished!

So it's been two months since I last posted. First, I knitted a baby blanket for my boss, so it took a while to finish off. Then I got a promotion at work and now I'm billing 220 months (legal friends, you know what this means) and I barely sleep. But I somehow managed to finish my second Icelandic chicken despite this! Meet Herman:

My workload has gotten to the point where I had to call in to work unsafe to drive, because I was too sleepy. H³ has been taking good care of me, though. He took me wine tasting today! It was a very pleasant and necessary break.

I'm starting a new project tonight (while I monitor my work e-mail... what is this? I'm not even an attorney. But at least they gave me my own office - woot!) and it should be a pretty quick stitch so maybe the next time you see it - it'll be done!

Until then, happy stitching!

Library Adventures - pages 22-24!

Another page bites the dust!

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The partial pages go by real quick! And now H³ has picked the second Icelandic chicken to be stitched next, so that's coming up!

I had my review at work today and it went very well. Things were kind of up in the air about whether or not I was going to stay. It all depended on what happened at the review. But I talked to someone a few weeks ago about my concerns and things fell into place today so I'll be staying a while longer, despite the crushing amounts of work. At least I'm finally at the point where I feel my compensation matches what is expected of me and I feel pretty good about it. Finally. There will be no fancy dinners to celebrate, however, because we're saving up to buy a house. And if I have anything to say about it, we will buy one as soon as we fiscally can. Today made that all the more possible.

So, with that, I'm off to work more (at 9:30pm... sigh) and happy stitching everyone!

Library Adventures #7

Here's one I haven't worked on in a while, although that can probably be said of most of my WIPs at this point: Library Adventures by Randal Spangler.

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I have missed stitching so much and now that I'm back into it, it feels so good. I usually knit during the week after work if I have time for it. I'm training for two half marathons right now and possibly a marathon so sometimes I get home pretty late and by the time I settle in it's usually too late to pull all my stitching out. But I can pick up with my knitting where I left off and then have little stitching marathons on the weekend.

I actually took a personal day on Monday (I paid for it Friday night and I'll pay for it again on Tuesday) but it got to the point where I just needed a day all for myself with no work. I have already booked a mani/pedi for Monday morning and then I plan to do some shopping, maybe hang out at a coffee shop and write for a bit, and stitching until I can't see straight. Throw some video games in there, too. And today I have to go for a run, hit up the BevMo $0.05 wine sale, and then we're going to go play board games at a friend's. Stitching now while my breakfast settles before going out for a run.

All in all, life is pretty okay right now. Work is still work and there is SO MUCH of it. I can't keep up. I think one of these days I'm just going to have to work until I get through everything in my inbox and then it will feel like a fresh start. Right now I have so many things outstanding my head is spinning.

One thing at a time.

Happy stitching!

Celestial Dragon, page finish!

My stitching bug is back and in full force, helped along by the fact that work is slowing down a bit so I've been working normal 8 hour days instead of 10-12 hour days! Put together all this means more stitching!

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 There is lots and lots of Kreinik in this piece, and you can just barely see the border that will surround the whole dragon, all stitching in 032 Kreinik. Once all the cross stitch is done there's also a crazy amount of backstitching, a couple of french knots, and beads galore! By the time I'm done I'm going to need sunglasses to look at it it will be so shiny!

Not that I'm complaining.

Happy stitching, everyone!

I'm Alive!

After I posted the last dragon picture, H³ asked me to finish crocheting his blanket, since it had been so cold in December. So I was crocheting away, busily, and my stitching fell by the wayside. Then, in January, we flew off to Iceland for a week. The weather was cold and snowy, the nights were long, and I felt so relaxed after. Lots of sleep was had. H³ also found some stitching stores in Reykjavik, and I ended up buying two patterns with chickens on them. Since then, I've been stitching away and just finished one!

We're calling her Henrietta! I have one more chicken, slightly different, so when that's done I'll post a photo. Henrietta is stitched on canvas with wool threads, something I'd never done before. She's cute, though, so once her companion is stitched I'll frame them both.

Next project will be going back to the dragon and finish my quarter page.

Besides that, life has just been work. Lots and lots of work. Always work. I should probably be working right now. But I'm not because I want a weekend. The good news about that much work is I discovered the power of audio books while I work. As long as the book isn't too complicated, I can listen while I work, so I've been blowing through books that would normally take me a year to get through. Almost through the whole Sookie Stackhouse series now!

The dog is good, Iceland was fantastic, I have missed stitching, and I am so glad to be back to it.